India’s Energy Ties With Russia Don’t Run ‘Afoul’ of Western Sanctions, US Says

India's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar remarked during his visit to Moscow on Tuesday that New Delhi has had “a very substantial and time-tested relationship with Russia” and that both the countries have been looking at ways to expand the economic partnership in the last few years.

The US State Department ruled that India’s burgeoning energy trade with Russia doesn’t run afoul of western sanctions, a day after Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar stated that New Delhi would continue to buy crude oil from Moscow, which has been to the Indian government’s advantage because of high global prices.

“To be clear, we’ve been intentional about exempting oil and gas – the energy sector – from sanctions that have been imposed on Russia. So, the fact that India has a high demand for energy, that it continues to seek oil and other forms of energy from Russia – that is not something that runs afoul of the sanctions that have been imposed,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

Russia reportedly emerged as the top supplier of crude to India in October, accounting for 22 percent of New Delhi’s overall energy imports. In the fiscal year of 2021-22, Moscow made up only around 0.2 percent of New Delhi’s overall crude imports.

So far, the US, EU and other western allies have imposed eight rounds of economic sanctions against Moscow over the special military operation in Ukraine. According to the western governments, the sanctions are designed to deprive Moscow of billions of dollars of revenue from the exports of energy, defense and other products.

Although Russia’s energy exports have been exempted from western sanctions, the EU has said that it will ban sea-bound crude imports from Moscow by December. The eighth round of sanctions, which took effect last month, also called for imposing a price cap on maritime transport of Russian oil.

India, ordinarily a major US partner, has said that it will continue to enhance its economic ties with Russia, which Foreign Minister Jaishankar described as a “time-tested friend” to New Delhi during his Moscow visit.

He said that economic cooperation between the two countries was moving towards “long-term stability” and that both the nations are on track to achieve the $30Bln annual trade turnover target set by the two leaders during the annual summit between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi last December.

During his meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Denis Manturov, the top Indian diplomat vowed to increase cooperation between the two countries in trade, investments, energy, fertilizers, pharma, agriculture, and shipping.

Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Jaishankar that both countries were also looking at enhancing military cooperation, including the “joint production of modern arms”.

Commenting on growing economic ties between Russia and India in non-energy sectors, the US State Department spokesman suggested that it was in New Delhi’s “interest” to reduce reliance on Russian products, including those related to security.

India’s Relationship with Russia ‘Cemented’ Over Decades, Says US

Price also acknowledged the strong Russia-India ties during his press conference, saying that the relationship has been cemented over decades, including during the Cold War.

“When it comes to India’s relationship with Russia, we’ve consistently made the point that it’s a relationship that developed and was cemented over the course of decades - really came to be during the Cold War at a time when the United States was not in a position to be an economic partner, a security partner, a military partner to India,” the US official remarked.

He, however, asserted that a “key task” of the Biden administration and the ones succeeding it would be to wean New Delhi away from Moscow.

“Now, this is a transition that we’ve always been able to see clearly will not take place overnight, over the course of even a few months or probably even over the course of a couple years. India is a large country, a vast country, a large economy that has demanding needs,” stated Price.